by Sara Clancy
The air filled with a static charge that seeped and burrowed into Ma’s pores. Her own energy rose up in response. It swelled within her throat, tainting her breath as she exhaled into the blistering desert heat that consumed the hallway. Sweat beaded across Ma’s forehead and dripped down to sting her eyes. She had almost collapsed with relief when she had found the crayon still within her pocket. It was a lifeline. It offered a chance to attack rather than only defend. Berret hadn’t commented when Ma had started to draw designs and patterns over the wall behind them. She was too focused on the snakes coiling around the legs of the gurney. Now, however, it seemed that she was ready to talk. Or at least listen.
“So,” Berret hesitated as she watched the figure still in the threshold, throwing itself against an invisible wall. “Demons?”
“There is only the one inside Marigold,” Ma assured.
“Why doesn’t she just walk out of the room?”
“It,” Ma corrected. “That’s Marigold’s body but it isn’t her. This will be easier on you if you can understand that. And it can’t leave. I put up a seal. As long as it remains undamaged, the demon cannot pass.”
“That boy, René, he said the snakes were here because of a demon,” Berret pressed. “Apparently alligators, too. And I’m guessing that it also has something to do with the bugs covering the windows.”
Ma didn’t pause in her task as she answered. “Demons can influence animals. Provoke them to go places, increase their aggression. One side of this town opens up onto swamp water and it has taken advantage of that. It’s a trick they often use to manipulate a situation.”
“Manipulate how?”
Ma only had to look at her for the woman to nod her sudden understanding.
“Divide and conquer,” Berret said. “It’s controlling who goes where. Keeping us in separate groups. We can’t get out. And if René’s right about the gators coming up from the swamp, we can’t get help in.”
“I was expecting the arrival of a few friends. Even if they make it here in time there will be nothing they can do. It also makes a marvelous distraction,” Ma said as she shifted her position and reached for a higher spot.
“What are you drawing?”
“Symbols to heighten and focus my power. If the seal keeping the demon contained breaks, my energy will be the only hope we have to keep it from leaving.”
Berret shook her head, as if trying to dislodge her lingering doubts and deal with the situation at hand. “Can you do that?”
“I don’t know,” Ma admitted. “Normally, possessing a body would sever any connections a demon has to the outside influences. But this demon is still feeding.”
“Off of a ghost child?” Berret asked hesitantly.
“I believe so. The raw emotion a child possesses is a potent source. It would explain why it is a lot stronger than it should be.” Her fingers stilled for a brief moment before she forced them to continue moving. “Perhaps even stronger than me.”
“But the symbols will even things out?”
Ma finished the last line and turned back to face the monster wearing Marigold’s skin. Beyond the swinging doors, the terrified screams had morphed into hurried shouts. It was a good sign. From the constant chatter over the Sheriff’s radio, they had learnt that most of the hospitals security and general staff had been separated from the main entrance. The few that had remained had managed to move who they could before the halls had filled, but some were still trapped with René and Cordelia in the front room. Animal control had arrived but the numbers of alligators outside had grown too much for them to get close.
Every so often, she would be able to hear Cordelia or René scream, shouting out something she couldn’t quite make out. It made fear twist in the pit of Ma’s stomach and she struggled to fight it off. Fear would only leave her open for the demon’s attack. She had to trust that they could bare the doors enough to keep the alligators out. Just like they trusted her to keep the demon in. The sound of glass cracking made her insides freeze. She turned to the woman beside her. Berret had heard it, too. The sheriff took one hand off of her gun to clench the thin mattress of the gurney, her fingers tightening as if she had to physically keep herself in place.
After a stunted breath, Berret met Ma’s gaze, “What can I do to help?”
“Don’t suppose you have a knife on you? And are skilled at catching snakes?”
“You want me to do an animal sacrifice?” the woman snapped.
“The universe demands balance. If we want the spirits to help spare our lives, we need to offer them a replacement.”
Berret nodded again. It was clear that Berret had only ever believed in things that she could see and prove. Logic. Reason. These beliefs clashed with everything she was currently experiencing and the resulting struggle showed on her face. But the world continued to rage around her, the effects too obvious and violent to be dismissed. Eventually, she licked her lips and turned back to Ma.
“I’m a crack shot and I have a full clip. Will shooting them do?”
“I’ve never tired it, but it can’t hurt.” Ma said with a slight, nervous smile. “I’m going to speak the incantations. Once I start, I can’t stop or it will all be for nothing.”
“I’ll protect you,” Berret said.
“This will get worse before it gets better.”
In response, Berret radioed in to her deputies that there will be shots fired. Ma, upon finding that René had already saved Cordelia’s new phone number into his mobile, decided that the boy was now no longer just an addition to the family, but one of her favorite relatives. The call was quick and confirmed Ma’s suspicions. Alligators were emerging from the bayous and swarming the town. Each one was fixated on getting to the grassy area around the hospital. They had managed to evacuate a few people before the alligators numbers had grown too large. Now, however, the focus had turned to keeping them out. The waiting room had two sets of glass doors that separated them from the outside. The reptiles were crawling over each other and pushing their bulk against the first set. Thick cracks were forming in the glass but they were holding. For now. Ma told her of the impending gunfire so she could warn the others, wished her luck, and ended the call.
“I’m ready,” Berret said as she clicked off the gun’s safety.
Ma turned her attention to the demon once more. It threw itself with more force, struggling to free itself before Ma could fortify her powers. She took a deep, steadying breath and spoke to the sheriff, her eyes never leaving the demon.
“Use the bullets wisely. Take as many as you can with each shot.”
Berret opened fire. Each shot was loud enough to make Ma’s ears ache and were met with a spurt of blood from the slithering horde. The snakes twisted and hissed, sinking their fangs into each other when they failed to spot the true threat. Remembering the words was easy. She knew them well enough for each incantation and ritual to be engraved upon her bones. It was maintaining her concentration that was the task. Energy exploded out like a fire ball. The emergency lights began to fail. They flickered and buzzed, their sound mixing with the booming gunfire and seemingly distant screams of the people out in the waiting room. Her power opened her up, making the limitations of distance and time feeble and barely perceivable. She could now hear the glass cracking like thawing ice, the sharp sound mingling with their territorial hisses and snaps of the massive gators.
As she unfurled her power, the seal became visible. It filled the threshold like oil rippling on water. Each strike from the demon made sparks snap through it, pushing the bounds and leaving lingering cracks. Ma threw every ounce of her strength into the seal, repairing the damage the demon had carved into it. The demon sensed her interference and threw Marigold’s battered body against it with renewed force. The wall quivered with the aftershocks. Fear ignited within her like a raging fire as she watched the plaster begin to crack. The damage snaked across the roof, reducing the plaster to dust and releasing it to rain down over them. It threw Marigold again, for
cing its power out like a sledgehammer against a fragile bone. With a sickening crack, the seal was severed by a dozen fine lines and the demon was unleashed.
***
Reality snapped and flipped around Marigold like metal confetti, replacing Louis and the bayou with a kaleidoscope of color. They settled into place, clicking like insect shells, before they began to melt away. She doubled over as her insides liquefied and reformed, her seeking hand finding a nearby wall to brace against. The walls stood solid but the floor continued to move. A scream she couldn’t repress ripped from her throat when she realized that she was standing ankle deep in a massive pit of snakes. Cast in a dark green light, they coiled around her ankles and slithered over her feet. She couldn’t feel them, not even as she staggered back in a primal instinct to get away. She wrenched her feet free and stepped back into the mass and still they didn’t bother with her.
Her body froze as she became aware of a presence behind her. Spinning around she found herself at the end of a long hallway. And she wasn’t alone. Created by the same glowing green light, Ma and another woman, who Marigold couldn’t identify, were sheltered on a gurney by the far wall. Is this real? Marigold thought to herself as she took in the sight. After all she had witnessed, the thought of ‘reality’ seemed like a cruel joke. But Louis had been real. Her mind countered. She couldn’t find a single part of her that disputed the claim. He had been real. And she had taken him with her from the plantation. He had urged her to find Ma, to tell her about Cypress, and she could only assume that she had accomplished it. That, for once, she had decided when and how she travelled.
But it wasn’t the only world that she had known. The real world and the ghost world were overlapping and she could see both, one imposed on the other. Strange symbols marked the walls, glowing like neon lights, sparkling like diamonds. She couldn’t understand why the snakes looked as if they belonged to the real world but she decided that it didn’t matter. Ma mattered. Cypress mattered. If Louis was right, if it was feeding off of him, then the demon had to be in possession of the infant’s soul. You’ll get back, she assured herself. The demon had only been in her life for a few months but it was enough for her to get a glimpse of what hell might be like. That was life for a child. Or afterlife for that matter. He was a La Roux, her family, and it was up to her to help him. Marigold balled her fist and clenched her jaw. You’ll get him back. Even if you have to rip the demon apart to do it.
Marigold shifted her eyes back to the women. They weren’t looking at the snakes. Instead, their attention was fixed on a doorway across the hall. A thin, oily film covered the threshold. Streaks of bright white light would dance across the surface in time with a loud thumping. It was strong and solid, but soon dwarfed by a clunking, groaning noise, like the sound of a boat hull straining against the push of the water.
With a sudden crash, a raging wall of light, muted and dulled to the color of graphite, poured in raging torrents from the room. Marigold braced herself for the crushing tide but it didn’t hit her like water. Instead, it was like being enveloped by a magnetic field, pushing at her even as they dragged her near. It took a moment to learn how to endure the sensation. Her lungs froze as she looked through the tossing haze and watched herself emerge from the room. Not herself, she realized. She was the existence of the mind and soul. What emerged from the room was only the flesh.
The demon wore her skin like a suit that fit too tight. It moved her body in staggered half steps and broken lurches. Casts covered both of her legs and her body was half-hidden under miles of bandages. But it wasn’t her own hellish appearance that shook her. Another face lingered over her own. Like a see-through graphite mask that hovered an inch above her physical face. It was snarled and rotten. Grotesque. Inhuman. Tentacles of the same dark color wormed their way out of her spine. Even though they were only constructed by light, they were still slick and dripped with sludge. A choked, gurgling noise came with it.
The demon moved Marigold’s body like a puppet on tangled strings as it twisted around to face her. Marigold’s stomach turned to ice as she looked over the mutilated shadow swallowing her physical body. Cypress had to be there. The demon would need to feed from the soul. It would keep him close. The tentacles shifted and uncoiled, constantly moving like a snake rearing up to strike. Come on, Cypress. She threw the thought like a bellowed scream. Where are you?
The demon peeled back a layer of its dexterous appendages, revealing what was once kept hidden. Marigold’s throat squeezed to keep herself from wrenching when she saw him. Cypress. He was just a tiny little thing. Fragile. Scared. The demon wrapped it up with its putrid tentacles. The tips burrowed deep into its flesh and pushed down its throat, choking off its pained squeals. Life streamed from the tiny child, stolen by the demon until his skin pulled, plastered to its bones. Her disgust gave way to rage, the twisted sensation pushing at her, driving her forward, filling every inch of her cells until she vibrated with it. The demon met her eyes with a fury that rivalled her own.
“You can’t have me,” Marigold hissed. “And you sure as hell can’t have Cypress.”
Before her eyes, the hallway stretched out into an insurmountable length. The gray flood waters rose up from the ground, leaking up to pool against the ceiling in a dark mass. It rumbled like rolling thunder. Between one blink and the next, the hallway became lined with corpses. She recognized most of them instantly and the other members of the La Roux family.
The demon remained on the other end of the hallway. Her body was small but the aura it created around her commanded every available ounce of space. Points of light began to burn through Marigold’s physical body. It sliced her stomach in two, ripping her open as something crawled its way out. The stench of searing flesh polluted the air as the glowing ember of a being slipped its passive paws out and pressed them against the tiles. The hound’s breath bellowed as humid steam emerged fully from her body. Marigold held her ground. As if to call her bluff, an IV stand materialized by her side. It was cool and solid and real in her hands as she heaved the strip of metal. The hound growled and took a step closer. Her hands shook as she tightened her grip on her makeshift weapon. Swallowing thickly she set her jaw and readied herself for the pain.
“Come here boy.”
***
The tree leaves created a smokescreen between them and the rest of the world. The impact knocked the wind out of Louis, leaving him wheezing as he struggled up onto his knees. Reaching out blindly, he found Nadia in the foliage and ungracefully began to pull her to her feet.
“Go,” he coughed as he shook her.
With his other hand, he found a branch that would offer enough leverage to pull himself up. Nadia stirred under his hand and, with a resonating groan, struggled to follow Louis’ lead.
“We’ve got to move. Now!”
Once she had started moving, she recovered far more quickly than him. They took turns dragging each other through the branches and along the trunk. The process felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than seconds. More than once, his feet slipped off the bark and fell into the muck. The thick mass of branches and leaves gave them a slight amount of grace, a window of opportunity before the gators grew bold enough to close in once more.
“I thought we were protected,” Nadia said.
Louis smirked, “Well, she didn’t touch us.”
A slight flicker of a thought entered his head, there for a moment before it was gone, but strange enough to make him take notice. Maggie would have laughed at that. They reached the end of the tree and Nadia hesitated.
“Go. We need to move.”
Nadia kept twisting around as if she wanted to check every possible slip of air, “Where is she?”
“Gone, for now. So, time is important.” Louis jumped to the ground. It was a short distance but his hip instantly protested the activity. He limped his recovery as he turned around and held out his hands to help Nadia. “Going up against the protection seal would have drained her. She’ll need time to
recover but not that much. So, at the risk of repeating myself, let’s go. Now. Quickly.”
Finally getting with the program, Nadia grabbed his shoulders and let him help her down. They both checked the tree line, trying to spot some kind of sign to guide them. Nadia grabbed his hand and set off, pulling him along behind them. The mud slicked to their feet as the razor grass licked against their legs, searching for any unprotected patch of skin it could find. Blood trickled down his legs as they left the tree line and raced out into an open field. The La Roux plantation loomed ahead but the scattering of people did little to ease his nerves. If the way she squeezed his hand was anything to go by, Nadia wasn’t soothed either.
They pushed past a group of people and bounded up the small set of stairs to the patio. Louis waited on the front porch as Nadia ducked inside to retrieve her purse. Louis knew that there wasn’t much of a chance that the ghosts would be strong enough to do anything to the vehicle but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they would try anyway. Even as he scanned the area and the stunned faces, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the car for too long. It still surprised him each time he looked back and found it still in the parking lot. Nadia tossed him the car keys the second she was close enough. With her other hand, she was dialing her mobile phone.
“I’m calling the police. I figure getting more people to the hospital can’t hurt.”
“I’m sure it will find a way,” Louis said as he yanked open the driver’s door. “After that, call the hospital for me. We need to tell my mother about Cypress.”
“Right. What am I telling her? We don’t have the body.”
